Millions of Americans voted Tuesday to elect either the country’s first woman President or a political outsider to the White House as the race between Hillary Clinton and her rival Donald Trump remains too close to call after an acrimonious campaign.
Fighting for every single vote at stake, Democratic nominee Clinton and her Republican rival Trump made their last-minute forceful arguments before the American people with their own vision for the world’s largest economy.
Ms Clinton, 69, was joined by husband Bill when she voted at an elementary school near their home in Chappaqua in New York state Tuesday morning.
“I’m so happy, I’m just incredibly happy,” said Ms Clinton as she emerged from the polling station, shaking hands, chatting with her supporters amid chants of “Madam President”.
Monday night she addressed a massive rally in Raleigh in the key battle ground state of North Carolina, which was entertained by Lady Gaga.
Mr Trump, 70, made a last minute scheduled stop in Michigan to address thousands of his supporters hoping that he might be able to swing this state from the Democrats.
A tiny New Hampshire town was the first to cast it votes at the stroke of midnight Tuesday, and the results are in: it chose Hillary Clinton.
Dixville Notch, a hamlet about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the Canadian border, has maintained the tradition of first-in-the-nation voting since 1960.
But the outcome in this mountainous Republican stronghold near Quebec is seen as more of a curiosity than a national bellwether.
A crowd of media and others dwarfed the exactly seven residents — five men and two women — of Dixville Notch who lined up to vote.
Just seconds after midnight, the ballots had been placed in a wooden box in the middle of the “ballot room” at the hotel of The Balsams ski resort.
Dixville Notch’s eight votes, including one absentee ballot, were swiftly counted and the tally announced: Hillary Clinton won four votes, in a relative landslide to the Republican billionaires’ two.
